For purposes of displaying garments suspended on hangers in an orderly manner to the retail customer, certain retail stores desire to affix an indicating means on the side of the hook of the hanger where the hook meets the hanger body. The indicating means identifies some attribute of the garment suspended from the hanger, such as size, quality, color, manufacturing data, or pattern.
To accommodate the various types of hangers available in the industry, numerous indicating means have been developed in a variety of shapes, sizes and materials. Similarly, hangers have been developed to accommodate a variety of different indicating means.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,115,940 discloses a side sizer indicator for a garment hanger, having a removable indicia carrying tab. The indicia is attached to a web contiguous to the hanger body which is joined to both the body and the hook.
The small size and the removable nature of this indicia generated concern on the part of some garment hanger manufacturers that prompted the development of non-removable or child proof indicia for garment hangers.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,096,101 and 5,199,608 disclose garment hangers with locking or irremovable information tabs, which hangers use a rib or thickened body portion to surround the indicia and block access to the underside of the indicia.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,441,182 also discloses a garment with a locking information clip having hook like elements or a raised platform to seat the clip, each of which prevents easy removal of the clip.
Environmental concerns have also generated a desire for hangers having information indicia which are essentially unremovable for the average consumer, but removable with the appropriate tooling for reuse and recycle purposes. Inasmuch as the indicators are generally colored plastic, it is highly desirable in any recycling program to remove the indicator before grinding the hangers for reuse. Further, in a reuse program, it is necessary to remove the old size indicia before fitting a new one.
An example of a garment hanger with a child proof size indicator and a special tool for removing the indicator is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 5,449,099. As taught is in this patent, the hanger may be molded with cuts in the protective rib which surrounds the clip to enable manual access by a special tool. This system however does not enable automated removal of the size indicia as necessary for commercially viable reuse or recycle programs.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,611,469 discloses a Hanger With Identification Clip having a through opening in the attachment web between the attachment rib and the childproof safety rib. However, once the indicator is mounted, the opening is covered and cannot be used to provide entry of an indicator detachment tool.